Dunedin Public Libraries

Ever wanted your own dragon?
Come and make one! It’s NZ Chinese Language Week and we’re celebrating with some bright and bold dragon-themed crafts. Pop into City Library after school to get your claws on a kit and get crafting!
FREE
Every weekday afternoon 23 – 27 September
3pm – 5pm | Children’s Section | City Library

Chinese Language Week Dumpling Day Story Time 🥟📚
Come and help us celebrate Chinese Language Week with a bi-lingual story time at the library.
You will hear delightful stories from some of our new Chinese Language picture books and, since it’s also International Dumpling Day, we’ll round off the entertainment with some tasty dumpling treats!
Thursday September 26th, 4.00pm
Dunningham Suite, 4th Floor, City Library
Bookings essential: tinyurl.com/DumplingDayDPL24

Dame Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira (Ngāti Porou, 1932-2011) was a visionary educationalist and key figure in the revitalisation of te reo Māori. Her numerous achievements in this area include teaching the first Māori language immersion class in a state school (in 1956), developing the Ātaarangi model of language learning, involvement in the establishment of Kohanga Reo, then the first Kura Kaupapa, and she was a founding member of the Māori Language Commission.

Mataira developed a reo Māori kitset during her time as a research fellow at the University of Waikato in the 1970s. The kitset was created as resource material for a preschool and primary Māori language programme. It included ten picture books, a cassette tape, and a manual, in which she asserts that “bilingualism is the inherent right of every New Zealand child since he derives from, and shares in, a bicultural society” The picture books, “essentially for children to look at and be read to” were deliberately made black and white so that they were easy to reproduce and so that tamariki could colour them in themselves. Created by various writers and illustrators, they span a range of topics and have all sorts of colourful characters - everything from a ghost (Kīkī kehua) to a flea (Kutu Wahanui).

There is a small display of these readers up in Kohikohika Motuhake - Heritage Collections, and we've photographed some for you to enjoy here too. The readers are listed on our catalogue here: https://tinyurl.com/2ksn3a6d

Kia kaha te reo Māori!

Looking for ways to incorporate te reo Māori into your daily life? Why not try a bedtime pukapuka (book) from LOTE4Kids 📚
Explore what's on offer: www.lote4kids-com.ezdunedin.kotui.org.nz/te-reo-maori/

Test your knowledge with Te Kēmu Patapatai! A quiz dedicated to te ao and te reo Māori, put together by librarians to celebrate Te Wiki o te reo Māori 2024!

Screening all week at: City Library, Mosgiel Library, Port Chalmers Library, Waikouaiti Library

Visions For Dunedin: Our Heritage, Our Future

Urban Archaeology: Life in the Inner City
Speakers: Bree Wooller (Senior Archaeologist at New Zealand Heritage Properties), and Megan Lawrence (Principal Archaeologist at New Zealand Heritage Properties)

The new Dunedin Hospital Development has led to the archaeological investigation of several inner-city blocks, which were once the location of densely packed dwellings interspersed with commercial and industrial premises. Ongoing archaeological excavations, conducted by New Zealand Heritage Properties, have encountered a range of features and deposits associated with the nineteenth-century settlement of the site. Many of the site’s occupants were first-generation settlers who created new lives for themselves upon their arrival to the city - while some prospered, others fell victim to hardship. This presentation will explore the lives of individual occupants discussing how they came to be living on the block, what they left behind in the archaeological record, and where they ended up - generally buried in either Dunedin's Northern or Southern cemetery.

Wednesday 25 September, 5:30pm
Dunningham Suite, 4th Floor, City Library
Free- Koha welcome

Mental Health Awareness Week: Peer Support

Join us at City Library this Mental Health Awareness Week, our friends from Otago Mental Health Support Trust will be on the Ground Floor to discuss what mental health support is on offer in our community, and to answer any questions you may have.

Tuesday 24th September, 2pm-4pm
Ground Floor, City Library

FREE

Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 any time for support from a trained counsellor.
Lifeline – 0800 543 354 (0800 LIFELINE) or free text 4357 (HELP).
Youthline – 0800 376 633, free text 234 or email [email protected] or online chat.
Samaritans – 0800 726 666
Su***de Crisis Helpline – 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO).

Wā Kōrero Reorua - Bilingual Storytime at Mosgiel Library is on tomorrow!

Join us from 10:30am Wednesday for half an hour of books, stories and waiata in te reo Māori and English. Suitable for preschoolers and whānau who want to have fun and enjoy the beauty of te reo Māori.

FREE
Wednesday 18th 10:30am
Mosgiel Library

September is World Alzheimer's Awareness Month, and Alzheimers Otago will be hosting a morning tea at City Library. Join them for information about dementia and what support is available.
Monday 23 September, 11am
2nd Floor, City Library
FREE

Celebrate Chinese Language Week at Mosgiel Storytime!

Introduce your child to the wonderful world of books and language. Visit the library for half an hour of stories, both old and new.
For this special storytime we'll be learning to sing a Chinese song, doing some language-learning activities, and using books from LOTE4Kids, available with your library card here: https://lote4kids-com.ezdunedin.kotui.org.nz/

Suitable for pre-school children and their care-givers.
Monday 23 September 10.30am
Mosgiel Library

The Cure for Burnout by Emily Ballesteros (https://bit.ly/4e0Rydf)

Each week our Collection Development team share the Item of the Week, a chance to highlight an item in our collection that we think you'll love! 📚

Do you strive to find better work/life balance, energy and fulfilment in your life. ‘The Cure for Burnout’ by Emily Ballesteros offers accessible and practical ways to prevent or reduce burnout. The author outlines areas in which you can build healthy habits - creating a sustainable balance in your life, identifying and setting personal and professional limits and mastering your stress by detaching from stressors. Encouraging and motivating the reader to not feel shame at our limits and finding ways to create a more positive mindset. This is a liberating guide to letting go of guilt and putting yourself first.

Come and help us celebrate Chinese Language Week with a bi-lingual story time at the library.
You will hear delightful stories from some of our new Chinese Language picture books and, since it’s also International Dumpling Day, we’ll round off the entertainment with some tasty dumpling treats!

Thursday September 26th, 4.00pm
Dunningham Suite, 4th Floor, City Library

Bookings essential: tinyurl.com/DumplingDayDPL24

Wā Kōrero Reorua

Haere mai e te whānau.
Join us for half an hour of books, stories and waiata in te reo Māori and English. Suitable for preschoolers and whānau who want to have fun and enjoy the beauty of te reo Māori.

FREE
Mosgiel Library Wednesday 18th 10:30am
City Library Storypit Thursday 19th 10.30am

Happy Māori Language Week!

Join us to celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori! Engage in activities like waiata singalongs, quizzes, and storytimes to create your own Māori Language Moment at Dunedin Public Libraries.

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2024 14 - 22 Mahuru

Public Waiata Singalong

Join us for our Māori Moment, a chance to sing alongside the librarians and learn a new waiata.

Tuesday 17th, 12pm-1pm
City Library

It's the perfect day for getting cosy on the couch with something good to watch. Watch movies and series with Beamafilm on all your favourite devices.
Head to beamafilm.com/instructions/dunedin to sign up with your library card today!

Continued Sense of Wonder: Survival Stories
Scared, stuck, stranded, but surviving. These are the kinds of books that’ll keep us alive!

Bring along a story of survival to share at the September discussion. The survival story might be based on a true story, or be completely fictional, set during an historical event or set in an imagined future. Survival stories are about overcoming odds, gaining resilience and skills, and include a good dose or two of adventure.

Share a favourite or a new discovery, for this adult conversation about children’s books.

BOOKING ESSENTIAL: 03 474 3690 or [email protected]
or RSVP here: tinyurl.com/CSOWSurvivalStories24

NEXT TUESDAY
Law for Tea, presented by Community Law Otago is back!
A series of talks on everyday aspects of the law and how they affect you, this session will focus on Separation and Relationship Property. Pop in for free information and a chance to ask questions.
FREE
Tuesday 17 September | 5.30pm
Ground Floor | City Library

There's always something new to learn from the New Non-Fiction!
Dive into an exploration of propaganda mastery, a heartfelt connection with trees, and the transformative journeys of motherhood. What will you uncover next?

New Non-Fiction — NB: September '24 New and recommended reading from our non-fiction collections.

Kia ora from Otago Polyfest 2024! 👋 We're at the Dunedin City Council Stall in the Polyfest Village this week 🤩

Make sure you stop by the to learn all about what’s on offer at your local library, as well as everything you need to know about the new South Dunedin Library and Community Centre! 📚🖍

Evelina by Frances Burney (https://bit.ly/4e3WAG1)

Each week our Collection Development team share the Item of the Week, a chance to highlight an item in our collection that we think you'll love! 📚

Need a break from bingeing on Bridgerton? The early romantic comedy, Evelina by Frances Burney (first published in 1778 ) might be the book for you. Brought up in the country and inexperienced in the ways of London society, Evelina stumbles through disastrous scrapes and misunderstandings as she picks her way through ‘the most fashionable Spring diversions’ of pleasure gardens, theatre visits, and debutante balls. Written in the form of a series of letters, Evelina’s witty and vivid observations bring to life the absurdities and excesses of the manners and social ambitions of fashionable society in the late eighteenth century.

Relax, unwind, and listen as our readers read aloud to you from a range of classic and contemporary literature. Connect with the stories that you always meant to read.
This month you'll hear excerpts from:

The Golden Key
By George MacDonald
AND
Heidi
By Johanna Spyri

DATE: Wednesday, September 11
TIME: 5.30pm to 6.30pm
LOCATION: City Library, Ground Floor, the Cube

The Write Time is back with a special guest! ✒
Inspiration from former broadcast journalist and current children’s author Emma Wood.

Stop in for one-on-one help and advice or just sit and write in the company of a fellow writer.

FREE
Tuesday 10 September, 3.30pm – 4.30pm
Teen Space, 2nd Floor, City Library

We're always very lucky when our friends at City of Literature Dunedin, New Zealand share an update via NB Magazine!
Have a look at what they've been up to lately, poetry workshops, book launches, delicious cakes and more!

Ōtepoti He Puna Auaha, Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature — NB: September '24 Project Coordinator Anne Shelah shares recent updates from the City of Literature.

We're partnering with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga in a competition to collect photos of Ōtepoti Dunedin’s most important heritage places.

Submit your photos of places on the New Zealand Heritage List Rārangi Kōrero between 1-29 September then see your photos displayed at Dunedin City Library on the Cube during the Ōtepoti Dunedin Heritage Festival.

Winners will receive an archival print and a $50 voucher from Happy Moose and a family pass to a Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Property in Otago.

Competition closes: 29 September
For more details: www.heritage.org.nz/news/stories/documenting-our-heritage-otepoti-dunedin-2024
📸: John Caswell

CRAFTerschool @ City Library
Spring is here! Join us to make a colourful flower basket.

Suitable for primary/intermediate age.
All materials supplied.

MONDAY 9th September 3:30pm - 4:30pm
Ground Floor, CITY LIBRARY

Meet the Neighbours – Jenna Packer

Jenna Packer is a full time artist, exhibiting her work since 1990 both within New Zealand and abroad. Jenna will talk about her experience learning to design and
hand paint stained glass for the new All Saints Church memorial window. “It was a steep
learning curve but a treat to learn from a master, Peter McKenzie.”

Thursday 19 September, 6pm
Blueskin Bay Library

Check out the winning poems and judges notes for both the Adult and Youth National Poetry Day Competition 2024! ✒

National Poetry Day Competition Results — NB: September '24 The results are in! Here are the winners of the 2024 National Poetry Day Competition.

Mysteries and suspense, excitement and adventure, and home-grown authors and stories?
It doesn't get any better than the latest selection of New Fiction in our collection!

New Fiction — NB: September '24 New and recommended fiction from our collections

Check out the September issue of NB Magazine! Winners of the National Poetry Day comp, recommended reads, and upcoming events that highlight the creativity in our community. Happy reading!

NB: September '24 YA Novels in Verse